Seychelles

Coup by René Supporters, 1977

On June 4-5, 1977, sixty supporters of the SPUP who had
been
training in Tanzania staged a coup and overthrew Mancham
while he
was in London. René, who denied knowing of the plan, was
then
sworn in as president and formed a new government.

A year later, the SPUP combined with several smaller
parties
and redesignated itself the Seychelles People's
Progressive Front
(SPPF), or simply the Front. A new constitution adopted in
1979
stipulated that the SPPF be the sole recognized party. The
constitution provided for a strong executive headed by the
president and a legislature of twenty-three elected and
two
appointed members.

In the first election, held in June 1979, René was the
single
candidate for president. He won with 98 percent of the
vote. The
results were viewed as a popular endorsement of the
socialist
policies pursued by the government in the two years
following the
coup. The SPPF proceeded with its program to set minimum
wage
levels, raise government salaries, improve housing and
health
facilities, broaden educational opportunities, increase
social
security coverage, and generate employment in agriculture
and
fisheries. The lives of most Seychellois were enhanced,
and most
citizens appeared to favor the government's policies.

The decision to turn the nation into a one-party state
based
on socialist ideology, as well as certain initiatives of
the
government, caused some bitterness, especially among the
upper
and middle classes. Censorship of the media and control
over
public expression were unpopular. A number of groups
attempted to
oust the René government between 1978 and 1987. The most
notable
was a group of mercenaries who tried to enter the country
in 1981
disguised as tourists from South Africa. The mercenaries
were
exposed as they came through customs at the international
airport
but most of them, including their leader, Colonel Michael
"Mad
Mike" Hoare, escaped after commandeering an Air India
passenger
plane to South Africa. Although the South African
government
prosecuted and jailed some of the mercenaries for air
hijacking,
Hoare testified that South African military and
intelligence
officials were involved in the coup attempt. During this
period,
the Seychelles government received support from Tanzania,
which
deployed troops to the islands to strengthen the
government's
hand.

Mancham and other exiled opposition figures based
principally
in London formed several groups that sought to turn
international
opinion against the René government, stigmatizing it as
antidemocratic, procommunist, and pro-Soviet. As part of
its
efforts to stifle opposition, the government embarked on a
campaign in 1987 to acquire parcels of land owned by
dissident
Seychellois living abroad. The takeovers were not subject
to
legal challenge, but the amount of compensation--in the
form of
bonds payable over twenty years--could be appealed in
court. The
government's authoritarianism finally brought it under
growing
pressure from its chief patrons--Britain and France.
Finally, in
1991 René and the SPPF consented to liberalize the
political
system, inviting opposition leaders to return to
Seychelles and
help rewrite the constitution to permit multiparty
politics.